Parker, Valeria Hopkins (1879–1959)
Parker, Valeria Hopkins (1879–1959)
American physician. Born Valeria Hopkins, Feb 11, 1879, in Chicago, IL; died Oct 25, 1959; dau. of Martha (Leath) Hopkins and Anson Jones Hopkins; studied at Augusta Hospital in Berlin, 1892, then in Switzerland until 1895; graduate of Oxford (OH) College, 1895; Hering Homeopathic Medical College in Chicago, MD, 1902; m. Dr. Edward O. Parker, 1905; children: 2.
Pioneering physician who played an important role in the social hygiene movement, practiced medicine before marriage; became a social hygiene activist (fought prostitution and venereal diseases and supported sex education); worked at Connecticut Social Hygiene Association (1914–19), then at Dr. Rachelle Yarros' American Social Hygiene Association; began lecturing on venereal disease and social hygiene for US Public Health Service (1920); was executive secretary of board of US Interdepartmental Social Hygiene, social hygiene committee chair of National League of Women Voters (1919–21) and member of advisory committee for General Federation of Women's Clubs; became 1st woman probation officer of Greenwich, CT (1913) and the 1st woman officer in the police force of state of CT.